In summer 2005 the Life Board established a working party on Individual Capital Assessment (ICA), which has two specific aims:

• Firstly, given the amount of time and resource being invested in producing Life ICA within the insurance industry, the working party will produce a summary of relevant papers, presentations and activity in the public domain which would be of use to actuaries involved in producing, interpreting or managing ICA for life insurance organisations. This exercise is intended to help share emerging best practice within the profession and assist cross-fertilisation of ideas across a range of insurance organisations.
• Having completed the initial exercise, the working party will identify key trends and issues which are emerging in the methodology for producing ICA. The working party will also summarise the key challenges which life insurance organisations (not just actuaries) are likely to face in relation to ICA going forward and will provide some thoughts on the ways in which these challenges could be approached.

The working party has published its terms of reference and has used the website to summarise its progress, including publishing minutes of its meetings. The working party has now published its report, which is available in the members only section of the site (log in, and then go to the minutes page, under People, in the Life Assurance area). Over the coming months, the Life Board will be considering the working party's report and any next steps that should be taken; updates will appear on this page.